The Truth Really is Out There

The web is filled with information. When you think about it, anyone can post information to the web. This information can be true or false, and sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference. There are times when you hear a story and think, 'There's no way that's true.' Well, think again, because it is often as important to verify that something is false as much as it is to verify that something is true.

One such true tale that is often dismissed as false is the case of the exploding whale. The time was 1970, the place was Oregon. A whale beached near Florence, Oregon and died. The Oregon Department of Transportation was given jurisdiction over disposing of the whale's remains. The plan was to destroy the whale's body using dynamite. The resulting whale kibble would serve as food for seagulls.

However, the plan went awry. The whale was destroyed, but the amount of dynamite used was only sufficient to blow the whale into large chunks, rather than the planned for kibble. Spectators ran for their safety and cars were damaged as huge whale chunks rained from the skies. The spectacle was captured for posterity by a local tv news crew.

Sounds incredulous? Perhaps. Yet another internet hoax? Not this time. The tale is true, yet lay largely forgotten until the mass adoption of the web in the lat e1990's, which gave it a resurrection and new life.

How to find information that verifies this story? First, we can turn to Galileo . Once there, we will select the option of 'databases by type.' Then we will go to 'newspapers.' Finally, we will select the database 'Newspaper Source.'

Once in Newspaper Source, we will do an advanced search for 'exploding' and 'whale' and 'Oregon,' and we will limit the search to full text. We will get one result, which is a transcript of an interview from National Public Radio from 2005.

Exploding Whale/NPR Transcript

Another source in Galileo to try is LexisNexis, which can be found be going to the tab 'databases A-Z' and looking under 'L.' Within LexisNexis, do a power search and set 'major world publications' as your source, and search for 'exploding' and 'whale' and 'Oregon.' This search will produce numerous results, many of which relate back to our search topic.

Finally, for those interested, there is a YouTube video of the event. Exploding whale on YouTube. Also, the urban legends reference website, Snopes, has a good page on the exploding whale. Exploding whale on Snopes

JWF

What day is this?

I'm creating a display. I pulled The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (GV 551.G47 2003) by Mordicai Gerstein. I went to pull the movie review for Man On Wire. I was going through the Saturday paper. The movie section wasn't there! Did someone pull the movie section? I looked a bit further only to discover - it was in Friday's paper.

Friday's AJC had the review by A. O. Scott of the New York Times.

-kls

Walking the wire

When I read the movie review by A. O. Scott for "Man On Wire" in the Saturday AJC, I thought there was a children's book about this event - and I couldn't think of the title.

I went to GALILEO and did a Search for Philippe Petit. I limited my search to Academic Search Complete, Research Library, NoveList and Book Index with Reviews. I figured I'd get something in NoveList and Book Index with Reviews.

Voila - there it was in NoveList. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Michael Gerstein. NoveList offers a curriculum extender for many titles- including this one. You can use this title in Math, Language Arts, PE, and Social Studies.

You might not want to take your elementary age child to the movie (it is rated PG-13) but the book would be appropriate for any age!

I looked in WorldCat to see who has the book. Yes, NMTC has the book- it is a Caldecott Winner- we do have an Early Childhood class on Children's Literature. Having the award winners in our library supports their program.

I gave you the link to the "public" version of WorldCat. If you use the WorldCat available through GALILEO, there is a "Borrow This Item From Another Library" link. That is helpful for you to get the book quickly from another library!

You may get the password to use GALILEO at home from your Georgia librarian.


-kls